Buyer Personas: The Framework for Successful Campaigns

More often than not, marketers create campaigns and brands based on assumptions. They don’t think about who they’re targeting, the things they do, and/or what they enjoy. Do they have a family or drive a specific car? Do they buy high end or generic? These can all be answered by creating a buyer persona. Buyer personas can help marketers refine who they’re targeting and obtain more qualified leads. They don’t need to be 100% factual, but can be based off your current customer database. Instead of going in blindly, with assumption, or personal opinion, you can target the right people and get the most out of your budget and personal efforts.

Buyer personas help in a lot of ways when it comes to identifying a potential buyer and should be an essential part of any marketing or sales strategy. Start with the foundation of getting to know your current customers. Starting here before developing anything else will save you time and money. Look at identifying factors such as annual income, where they live, married or single, and any other identifier that could help build your persona. Think about if they eat out or cook at home. Do they shop at Whole Foods or at another local grocery store? It’s better to know your potential buyer before creating and implementing any type of strategy or campaign.

Another thing personas offer is a window into where and how they live their life. Think about the general buying process. It usually starts with some form of research or you can ask a friend for recommendations. These are factors to consider when creating your persona. Do they search online? Is it on their computer, phone, or tablet? Do they reach out for recommendations directly or ask on social media? This will give insight into how you can target a potential buyer. And if a PPC campaign is involved, having that information will allow you to allocate your budget to devices that will draw more results.

Buyer personas can create the foundation to help build your campaign and/or marketing and sales endeavors. There are many marketing automation tools that help you to create and store personas. For example, HubSpot has a wonderful buyer persona tool where you not only create them, but you can include them in a contact’s profile or have include it as a form field option. While it may seem tedious at first, it will pay off in the long run with more successful strategies.